


Protection

by GalahadWilder



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chameleon Fix Fic, Fix Fic, post chameleon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-01-16 02:00:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18511627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalahadWilder/pseuds/GalahadWilder
Summary: Alya Césaire keeps track of every Akuma, and none of them have terrified her more than Lila Rossi. So when the girl finally showed up to school, Alya implemented a desperate plan to make sure that the faux fox didn't go berserk and hurt any of her friends.It didn't work, and now she's accidentally alienated her best friend. But if Alya wants to protect her class, she's gonna need Marinette's help—and maybe a little Ladybug luck.





	1. A Qualified Investigator

Marinette sighed as she sipped her hot chocolate and tried not to cry. Today had been awful, maybe the worst day she’d had since Tikki had given her the courage to start standing up to Chloé. In the space of a day, the whole class had turned against her and there was nothing she could do about it!

She wanted to curl up into bed and sleep for a week. Just… stop everything and let the world take care of itself for a few days. See how well everything got along without her.

She sighed again. She wouldn’t do that, she knew - that was just spite talking. Spite and depression. She wasn’t that kind of person; not anymore. She’d keep fighting for them anyway.

Whether or not they actually appreciated her for it.

Her eyelids quivered and she tried not to shudder as she thought of going back to spending the year alone, without anyone by her side. The thought might’ve been tolerable, once, but that had been back when she’d been ignored. Before they’d told her they’d appreciate her, and then turned their backs on her without warning. The only one of them who’d stood by her side was Adrien, and that was a cold comfort when he was too scared to actually stand up for her.

She jumped at the sound of a knock on her trapdoor. “Hey, Marinette?” Alya’s voice said through the hatch, soft and hesitant. “You up here?”

Marinette groaned. “Go away, Alya,” she mumbled.

“Marinette?”

Marinette huffed and hugged herself. Maybe if she stayed quiet, Alya would think she was gone and leave. Which she realized didn’t make sense, but Alya had done a lot of things that didn’t make sense today.

“Marinette,” Alya said, “You have to let me up eventually.”

And suddenly Marinette found she couldn’t take it anymore. “Why don’t you go spend time with your  _new_  best friend?” she snapped.

Alya was silent for a moment. “Okay, I’m coming up,” she said, before slamming the hatch open and charging onto the rooftop.

Marinette turned away from her, trying to hide the stinging tears on her cheek. “If you’re just going to tell me to lay off her again—”

Alya wrapped her arms around Marinette’s torso from behind. “I was trying to  _protect_  you, you… you absolute  _goober.”_

What?

“What do you mean?” Marinette demanded softly.

“I, uh…” Alya squeezed Marinette’s arms, then sighed. “Look. We  _know_  you. We trust you. You say Lila was lying? Then Lila was lying.”

“So why did you take her side?”

Alya unwrapped herself from her friend and opened her phone. “Look,” she said, handing Marinette her screen. It was open to a photo of Volpina, four months ago, dragging an illusion of Adrien up the Eiffel Tower.

“We didn’t take her side,” Alya said. “We were  _humoring_  her.” She shook her head. “Look, I’m a reporter. You honestly think I didn’t look into the fact that our class was missing a student before today?” She leaned forward and pointed at the phone. “Before this morning, the only thing I knew about her was that she’d already been Akumatized twice, managed to  _hide_  it, and both times she tried to  _murder_ somebody.” She frowned. “And today makes three for three.”

Marinette tilted her head. She and Chat Noir hadn’t revealed that Adrien had been an illusion, she suddenly remembered. But Lila hadn’t shown herself on Heroes’ Day… “Wait,” she said. “Twice?” Alya couldn’t have known about Heroes’ Day, even  _she_  hadn’t been sure.

Alya smiled and put a finger to her lips. “I’ve got my sources,” she said. Then she frowned. “But yeah, if today proved anything, it’s that Rossi is  _unstable_.” She hugged Marinette again. “I just didn’t want her hurting you…”

Marinette felt tears squeeze out, but for an entirely different reason than before. “So, wait,” she said. “The—the whole class knew about this?”

Alya nodded. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get you the message,” she said. “Lila was  _right there_  and we couldn’t figure out how to tell you without alerting her.”

Marinette sobbed, throwing her arms around Alya. “I th-th-thought you’d all abandoned me…”

Alya grinned and patted Marinette on the back. “Never,” she said.


	2. A Class Picnic

“Oh, hello, kids!” Sabine said as Madame Bustier’s class swarmed into the Dupain-Cheng Boulangerie & Patisserie. “Something special going on today?”

“Not really,” Ivan said. He looked around to his classmates with a sheepish grin. “Does anyone mind if I order first? I’ve been looking forward to a pain aux raisins all morning.”

There was some mild grumbling from Kim and Alix, and an ignored huff from Chloé who was otherwise too busy eyeing the fruit tarts, but otherwise no one seemed to mind, so he went ahead.

“Not that I’m complaining,” Sabine said, retrieving Ivan’s order from the case, “but what brings you all here? This looks like almost the whole class.”

” _Spite_ ,” Alya snarled.

Nino put a calming hand on his girlfriend’s shoulder. “The new girl in class started dissing your bakery to Marinette’s face,” he said. “Myléne suggested we all get lunch here as away to show our support.”

Myléne blushed. “It was Nathanael’s idea,” she said. “I just repeated it louder.”

Nathanael, hiding in the corner, turned about as red as his hair.

Sabine beamed as she arrayed Kim’s usual order on a tray before he’d even had time to ask for it. “That’s so sweet!” she said. “You know what, I’m sure Tom wouldn’t mind if I gave you all a five percent discount on this order.”

”Wow, thanks!” Alix cried, staring through the glass at one of the tiramisu. She was elbowed by Ivan, and promptly straightened to sheepishly meet Sabine’s eyes. “Thank you, Madame Cheng,” she said, more politely this time.

Ivan grinned as everyone else chimed in their thanks, followed by the sound of an actual chime coming from the door.

”Marinette!” Rose cried with delight, and suddenly everyone was swarming in on their class President, babbling excitedly about how _nice_ her mother was and how much they were looking forward to lunch and how glad they were to see her—

“Whoa, guys,” Nino said. “Let the girl breathe.”

Marinette looked around in confusion at the smiling, expectant faces of her classmates. “Uh... hi?” she said. “What’s... everyone doing here?”

”Solidarity, girl!” Alya cried, slinging her arm over Marinette’s shoulders. “Lila can’t shit-talk the best bakery in Paris without _us_ doing something about it.” She leaned in, pointing. “Even _Chloé_ agreed to come,” she whispered.

”I’m just hear for the tarts,” Chloé snapped, not taking her eyes off the aforementioned treats. Apparently her hearing was much better than anyone in the class had expected.

Alix snorted. “Tarts for the tart.” Everyone ignored her.

Marinette’s smile was slow and teary, and she wiped her eyes. “Thank you,” she croaked. “All of you.”

“Also,” Alya whispered, hiding her mouth behind her hand so none of the rest of the class could see, “I wanted to apologize for playing the Adrien card yesterday. I know you’re sensitive about that and I was kinda panicking.”

Marinette patted Alya’s arm. “It’s okay,” she said, then she turned to the rest of the class. “Thank you for being there for me,” she said.

All of them smiled and agreed, babbling assurances over each other. Sabine smiled. Given how Marinette had been acting when she came home last night, she was glad that her friends were still there for her—though she admittedly was sort of confused about what was going on.

* * *

”So Adrien’s not in on it?” Marinette said as she sat down on the picnic blanket Rose had brought. The whole class—minus Adrien and Lila—and unfortunately Juleka, there’d apparently been some kind of houseboat emergency that she needed to help her mother take care of—was arrayed across the blanket, laughing and chatting and generally just sort of _being there_. But once again, just like last month, they were throwing a picnic for her specifically, and she tried her best not to cry.

Alya cackled. “No offense to your boy, sweetie, but he’s kind of a pushover,” she said. “I’m not sure the secret would last that long in his hands.”

Marinette gave her a sidelong look. “He’s an appeaser, Alya,” she said. “He suggested pretty much the same plan yesterday, completely independent of you.” She gestured toward their tallest classmate. “Besides, you told _Kim_.”

Alya pursed her lips and pumped her eyebrows once. "It was the only way to stop him from challenging her to a fight," she said. "I think he might've tried to Akumatize her deliberately just to see if he could take her."

"Hello, everyone! I didn't know we were having a class picnic today."

Alya's eyes widened, and all the sound began to dull as her ears filled with the sound of her pulse.  _No, no, no, not her, please no_ —

"Oh!" Rose said, brightly, but Alya could see the strain in her face. "Hello Lila!"

Marinette tensed up, her fingers squeezing Alya's arm white.  The entire rest of the class began to look away, to panic, to get ready to run...

Except, Ladybug be praised, Alix. "Sorry!" the pint-sized girl said. "We'd been planning this for a few weeks, and we kind of..." She waved her hand noncommittally. "Forgot about it yesterday when you showed up."

”Well, it seems like a good time to get to know each other then!” Lila said, plopping down between Kim and Max, which was just _rude_ —Alya hadn’t even been in class for twenty minutes before she figured out that those two idiots liked each other and that anyone not named Ondine getting between them was hazardous, since Alix was more than willing to stab any bitch who interfered with her oblivious platonic boyfriends. Max looked disgusted at her presence, Kim looked uncomfortable, and Alix’s tiny hands were curling into what Alya knows are freakishly strong fists—the girl once punched a hole in a brick wall on a dare. Lila either didn’t notice or was intentionally ignoring their reactions. “Where’d we all go for lunch?”

Nobody answered her. They hadn’t planned for this—what were they supposed to say? That they’d picked their lunch venue specifically to spite her?

She looked around and saw all The Dupain-Cheng wrappers, and her smile grew more strained. “If you guys wanted to go to a bakery you should’ve told me!” she cried. “I know the best bakery in the city—”

”This _is_ the best bakery in the city,” Sabrina, of all people, grumbled. “I’ve checked.” Because of course she had—nothing but the best for Chloé.

”Well, what about Giano’s?” Lila said. “I’m his niece, I could’ve gotten you all really good discounts—”

Alya looked at Marinette and grimaced, sticking her tongue out. Lila was, thankfully, looking the other direction.

”—and he has the best fruit tarts,” Lila continued, looking in Chloé’s direction. Chloé ignored her, tucking into her treat.

Kim, however, did not. “Giano doesn’t have any siblings?” he said.

Alya’s jaw dropped. _No, Kim, no, no, Kim, no, NO—_

Apparently, he _was_ that stupid. “How are you his niece?”

Lila boggled for a second before recovering. “Well, obviously I mean honorary niece,” she said. “He’s an old family friend, we knew each other back in the old country—”

”But—”

 _Kim! Shut up!_ Alya screamed in her head, but it was no good. He just kept _talking_.

”—Giano’s from the United States,” the idiot continued. “Everyone knows he changed his name as a marketing ploy cause his food isn’t very good.”

Everyone gasped, and Alya dropped her head into her hands and sobbed. She’d tried so _hard_ —

“Are you insulting my Uncle Giano?”

”No,” Chloé said, not even looking up from her tart. “He’s calling you a liar.”

Lila froze... then, predictably, burst into tears. “Why would you say that?” she sobbed. “You don’t... you don’t even know me!”

Chloé simply reached into her purse and pulled out her nail file, ignoring Lila in favor of her fingertips.

Lila looked around at the class, mock desperation on her face. "This was Marinette, wasn't it?” she sobbed. "She couldn't stand me being more popular than her so she had to lie about me."

Marinette shrank, trying to hide herself behind Alya, who shifted protectively around her. This was gonna be bad.

Lila lurched to her feet. “I can’t believe you!” she yelled, stalking forward. “Everyone says you’re _so_ nice but you’re just a manipulative bitch—”

Chloé stood and tapped Lila on the shoulder. "Excuse me."

Lila turned, and Chloé's fist took her across the face, laying her flat out on the ground. The entire class gasped at the sound of snapping bone.

" _No one_ talks about Dupain-Cheng like that but me," Chloé seethed. "Got that?"

Lila looked up at her in shock, her jaw slightly crooked, real tears replacing the crocodile ones in her eyes, and Alya knew that this had gone too far. There was no fixing this. The whole ruse had been blown permanently, and Lila was going to keep coming after them until someone died. Perversely, she felt kind of relieved at the end of the charade; it was out of her hands now. She couldn't do anything, so she didn't need to.

"What the heck was that?" Alix said.

Chloé shook her hand out. "I convinced Daddy to let me take Savate lessons after I got my Miraculous," she said.

Lila looked around at the class, desperate, apparently searching for some shred of sympathy. She found none. Her face twisted, hatred filling her expression. "I'm going to kill you," she spat.

Chloé smiled. "Everyone in this park has tried."

Alya could  _feel_ Marinette suddenly shift from panic mode to command mode, and when the Class President surged to her feet and pointed at the sky, she could see why—the black and purple butterfly swooping down toward them. "Everyone, scatter!" Marinette yelled.

Nobody even had to think before following her instructions.


End file.
